Joe Biden has launched one of his most scathing attacks yet on Donald Trump’s record of racism, suggesting that the former US president would have acted differently to the January 6 2021 insurrection if was led by Black people.
The remarks, at a dinner hosted by a civil rights organisation in a critical swing state, pointed to an intensifying battle between Biden and Trump for African American voters ahead of November’s presidential election.
“Let me ask you,” Biden said during an address to an NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) dinner in Detroit. “What do you think he would have done on January 6 if Black Americans had stormed the Capitol?”
There was a collective gasp and murmur in the cavernous convention centre, where an estimated 5,000 guests had gathered. The president insisted: “No, I’m serious. What do you think? I can only imagine.”
That’s not what they’re saying. They’re saying other people won’t vote for Biden because he’s enabling a genocide of people from their community and it’s ridiculous to expect that they would. It’s easy to foresee what would happen and change tact, you know, like a politician. It’s not a prescription, it’s a description.
Vote your conscious. Personally, if you’re in a swing state, I think you should vote Biden. But maybe also don’t jump in front of bullets to protect him from criticism because it’s not going to help him. Forcing him to try harder on this issue will help him. He’s even throwing up some token resistance now, like that temporary hold up a few weapons, so baby steps are happening. I mean, it sounds like he approved another $1 billion of weapons after that little stunt of temporarily holding up a couple, and he’s still condemning protestors and the UN trying to hold Israel accountable even while they walk right over his “red line” but hey, uh… Baby steps, I guess…